San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has always been refreshingly candid when expressing his opinions on all things from basketball to politics. Not one to mince words, Pop has been a vocal critic of President Trump, has called on white people to be vocal about injustice and stood up for Black Lives Matter.
It’s clear that if you ask Pop a question, he’ll tell you what he really thinks, with no room for confusion. It’s no surprise then that when NBA on TNT asked the 71-year-old coach if he was concerned about the coronavirus risks inside the NBA bubble in Orlando, his answer cut to the heart of the issue.
“I don’t want to die,” Pop said via video chat. “I wear my mask all the time, I took it off to talk to you guys. It behooves each of us who might be a little bit older to take it very seriously. I wear my mask to practice. I only take it off when I’ve got something to say, because I am concerned. You’re exactly right.”
“It behooves each of us who might be a little bit older to take it very seriously.”
Coach Pop addresses his concerns about the coronavirus on #TheArena pic.twitter.com/q5WikgFiM6
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) July 21, 2020
Despite that, Pop also told CBS Austin late last week that he feels safer in the Florida bubble than he would back home in Texas. Pop then ripped into Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, lambasting them for their inexcusable handling of the pandemic in his state.
“The bubble is one of the safest places you can be, especially compared to outside the bubble…We’ve been all over the map in Texas, no one knows what the heck is going on. We have a lieutenant governor who has decided he doesn’t want to listen to Fauci or those people anymore…the messaging is ridiculous. The governor goes back and forth based on whether he has to satisfy Trump or listen to the numbers. No overall policy, no principle. It’s all about politics. It’s all about what’s good for them and ‘them’ mostly means Trump. Because they’re all cowards and they’re all afraid of him.”
At the moment, COVID-19 cases are surging in Texas, with over 346,000 confirmed cases and over 4,000 deaths.